Even if the weather isn’t ideal for photography, a walk around Ballenberg open air museum is always lovely. The museum contains a large number of buildings of all ages from all over Switzerland, which have been carefully dismantled and re-built on an area of land near Brienz, in the Bernese Oberland. The museum is a heritage environment where visitors can learn about everything from traditional building techniques to animal farming, as well as attending annual open-air theatre productions featuring both classic and modernized tales.

When Jo and I visited recently with Jo’s parents, the museum had officially closed for the season and so the buildings, normally open to visitors, were closed and shuttered for the winter. The land is, however, open to the public during the winter season and so we had the place almost entirely to ourselves. Despite the lack of animals or active life around the forested lanes, a walk through the different sections of the museum is a pleasant stroll through Swiss farming history.